The music business has a long history of measuring artists’ success in order to monitor the impact of different music-related
actions, as well as to plan and estimate future developments in artists’ careers. Due to rapid changes in the music industry
landscape, the methods traditionally used to measure success are no longer relevant. However, music is listened more than
ever before, resulting in an increased need for new and reliable gauges to measure artists’ success now and in the future. This
thesis examines success from a number of different angles, in particular how to define and measure it in the music business.
The objectives of this research are divided into four main categories in order to determine 1) what success is all about, 2)
what features a successful artist has, 3) how success has been measured in the past, and 4) how it should be measured in the
future. This thesis also develops a way of categorising the different success factors in the music business, and contains four
perspectives from which success can be measured. In so doing, this highly subjective and abstract phenomenon is rendered
more concrete. The theoretical background of the thesis is based on literature that considers the measurement of success
from different angles. This literature is also used to create a new framework and approach to success measurement, which is
in turn used to interpret and structure the data subsequently collected.
The research approach used was qualitative. Specifically, a series of semi-structured interviews were carried out. Four
Finnish music industry professionals were interviewed about their thoughts and opinions regarding success measurement.
The data they provided were analysed using qualitative content analysis.
The results suggest that measuring success in the music business is highly relevant. However, the methods of measurement
are more fragmented than they used to be. This fragmentation has followed the changes in the music industry landscape, and
has created a demand for new kinds of gauges with which to measure success. Finally, this thesis proposes a new way of
categorising success in the music industry, dividing success factors into four categories: economic, sociocultural, sensorial,
and biological.

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69 s.

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eng

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